Daily Vocabulary Dose by SSCtube (14-02-2018)

Article

Specialist healthcare (secondary and tertiary care) underwent a transformation with the rise of the advanced medical interventions comprising tertiary-care medicine like organ transplantation and open heart surgery. With little being done to erect a robustpublic health infrastructure that could make healthcare available regardless of one’s ability to pay, highly-priced sophisticated medical interventions kept pushing into the Indian healthcare scenario. This has evolved into an entrenchedcharacteristic of modern Indian healthcare.

A glimmer of hope was kindled by the Union Budget 2018-19 hailing the concept of health protection, only to be met with a set of dismaying figures. With the National Health Policy (NHP) 2017 seeking to double government spending on healthcare from 1.15 per cent to 2.5 per cent of GDP by 2025, a 20 per cent increase in allocation year-on-year is necessitated for 7-8 years to attain the objective. The budget, however, has kept this to a meagre 5 per cent increase over the revised estimate of 2017-18.

The insurance sum of Rs 5 lakh per family per year under the National Health Protection Scheme (NHPS) appears to be unrealistically aspirational considering its 2016 iteration, which allocated Rs 1 lakh per family per year, is yet to take off. Publicly-funded health insurance through private hospitals is by itself no bad move, since it can significantly increase access to quality secondary and tertiary care and reduce the burden of hospital expenses. However, as a means of achieving universal health protection, it is likely to be highly inept and saddled with compromises. If the lack of sufficient practical precedent isn’t enough, the idea appears to be untenable even in theory. A strong primary care system is vital to achieving universal health coverage.

It is futile to expect private entities to be interested in assuming a prominent role in primary-care provision, which is a much less rewarding enterprise than tertiary care. This certainly cannot go unappreciated by the finance minister, who therefore slides in “secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation” along with health protection under the NHPS.

Untenable: not able to be maintained or defended against attack or objection. अस्थिर, असमर्थनीय
Synonyms: indefensible, unarguable, unsustainable
Antonyms: supportive, defensibleThis argument is clearly untenable.